There were plenty of glimpses at how the Tigers are going about filling that void.

After a red-hot start, though, there were also some reminders that there will be some growing pains in the secondary while LSU's youngest guns learn on the run.

The Tigers plugged past North Texas 41-14 Saturday night with a dominant opening stretch supplying plenty of breathing room as third-ranked LSU flexed its muscle and roared to a 24-0 lead.

One place where LSU clearly hasn't missed a beat was in the punt-return game, where Odell Beckham Jr. was downright dazzling when he got the chance to be, and just as game changing as the last several punt returners have been.

The former Newman star, in his first stint as the Tigers' primary punt returner, took one Mean Green kick back 76 yards for a score, but it was wiped out by an illegal block punt.

Moments later, Beckham hauled in a punt in traffic, sidestepped one would-be-tackler and found a seam down the left sideline.

Just past midfield, Jesuit product Deion Jones cleared the path a little more with a crunching block and when Beckham got to the 35-yard-line he deftly vaulted over punter Will Atterberry for clear sailing the rest of the way.

Beckham
said he picked Mathieu's brain last season, knowing he would eventually get a
chance to step in. it just happened sooner than expected when Mathieu was
dismissed from the program on Aug. 10.

"There's certain things that
he taught me and I just try to take those tips and use them," Beckham said.

Asked to divulge what those
pointers were, Beckham smiled coyly and said "I don't want to give away any
secrets. It's just about seeing the hole and you gotta hit it."

The final move to elude
Atterberry was more long jumper than punt returner, a move Beckham chalked up
to instinct.

"I just had to pick my feet
up," he said. "It was a natural reaction."

It was also natural for
Beckham to shrug off the first return, which featured a little more
razzle-dazzle as he zig-zagged down the field and wound up home free on the
right sideline.

Part of that freedom was due
to a block-in-the-back penalty on his roommate and close friend Jarvis Landry,
who later helped spring Beckham for the TD and also delivered a path-clearing
haymaker downfield on Kenny Hilliard's 60-yard rumble.

"I
was in a bad position," Landry said. "I felt that I made a clean block but the
referee made a great call. I kind of made me feel better when Odell took the
next one back. It was just me in the moment try to make a play for him."

An almost identical moment
arrived soon after that and Beckham made the best of it.

"You get another opportunity
to return one and you've got to take advantage of it," Beckham said.

The
punt-return touchdown puts Beckham in elite company with Mathieu, Patrick
Peterson, Chad Jones and Trindon Holliday - all of whom brought a punt back for
a score. With Beckham's TD on Saturday, the Tigers have at least one score by
that means the last five seasons, and three in the last four games.

Besides
the two long punt returns, Beckham also had a 26-yard kickoff return and snared
three passes for 30 yards to finish with 131 all-purpose yards.

"All
week, all summer he's been talking about taking the field as (punt returner),"
Landry said of Beckham. "He got his opportunity and he showed the world what he
can do. I think you'll see a lot more of that coming from Odell."

Perhaps
just as importantly, Beckham was safe on punt returns the rest of the night
when Atterberry made a point of directionally kicking the ball away from him.

That
happened often with Mathieu a year ago, and he took a gamble once in a while to
force teams to rethink the strategy.

It's
likely that at some point, Beckham will have to pull that out of his hip pocket
as well.

"There were a few of them I
wanted to grab, but you have to be smart and do what you can to help your team,"
he said.